LightZone Photo Editing Software at PhotoPlus Expo : Light Crafts announced availability of LightZone, a breakthrough photo editing software tool designed especially for professional and avid photographers. LightZone provides a complete photo editing tool that significantly reduces the time photographers spend after a shoot producing high quality photographs. LightZone offers photographers an advanced RAW editing experience that is easy to use while delivering a fast workflow that produces professional results. Designed and built from the ground up for professionals, LightZone is available as a free 30-day trial at the lightcrafts website. LightZone is immediately available for Macintosh users and in November for Windows users.

PhotoPlus Expo 2005
LightZone is being demonstrated at PhotoPlus Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, in New York. LightZone is a better way to view, manage, edit and correct digital photographs and create stunning photographic and fine art prints. Based on light values and shapes, LightZone works in the same way that photographers think about their photographs. The technology behind LightZone was recently previewed for the first time at DEMOfall 2005, where it received the "DEMOGod Award." Because of its multi-platform support, LightZone users will be able to quickly become productive, regardless of their computer's operating system, and seamlessly collaborate and share files edited in LightZone.

LightZone - Correct digital photographs
"LightZone is the answer for photographers who want to spend more time on photography and less time learning paint-shop software," said Dean Tucker, CEO and president of Light Crafts. "LightZone releases photographers from the tedious technology of the past and gives them more time to express their creativity. We built LightZone with professional photographers in mind, so professionals get the power they want, yet it's easy enough for avid photographers to use."

Professional photo editing tool
"LightZone is the easiest professional-grade photo editing tool I've worked with," said David Cardinal, of Cardinal Photo, Portola Valley, CA, a wildlife and nature photographer who is also a featured speaker and teacher at the Digital Landscape Workshop Series and publishes the DigitalPro Shooter newsletter. "In particular I liked the visual way that zones can be identified and mapped, compared to the fairly labor intensive alternatives using curves or levels in traditional editing applications. It's also very exciting that with LightZone only the original image file and small sets of edit commands need to be saved, instead of multiple disk-filling TIFF or PSD files." LightZone is full of pleasant surprises for first-time users, said Lars Vinberg, professional photographer and director of product management for Light Crafts. "One of the surprises is its performance. While traditional photography software grinds to a halt when editing and processing large image files, LightZone rapidly hums along through the editing process."

Integrated Solution Optimizes Photo Editing, Workflow and Output
LightZone provides serious photographers with a tightly integrated digital workflow to help them make the most efficient use of their time viewing, organizing, editing, correcting and printing their photographs. The fully integrated solution includes everything a photographer needs to convert, browse, edit, tune and print photographs.

Key features in LightZone
StudioZone; an innovative image viewer and file browser, StudioZone lets photographers view, print and publish their photographs using a true digital negative format. A powerful search function, with metadata search, helps you find specific images in an instant. An integrated RAW converter provides a seamless workflow from camera media to LightZone.

ZoneFinder - analyzes images in shapes and tonal values
Using patent-pending technology, ZoneFinder analyzes and displays an image in shapes and tonal values, just as photographers pre-visualize their prints. ZoneMapper; ZoneMapper provides an easier way to control and adjust the light and tonal values of an image. ZoneMapper is the most powerful way to precisely remap tonal values for color correction, to set the optimal points for highlights and shadows, and to correct contrast. RegionMapper; RegionMapper simplifies selecting even the most complicated regions of an image and it expertly blends the effects of the tools and transformations with the rest of the image. This simple technique provides extraordinarily precise and accurate control of the area being edited.

True Non-Destructive Editing
A powerful rendering engine eliminates the need to store multiple copies of an image and significantly reduces the storage required for edited images. RAW images are not converted to intermediate file types, and can be retouched with professional results using LightZone's intuitive and effective editing tools. LightZone's nondestructive image processing engine does not alter any portion of the original image file, so photographers can modify or delete changes at any point in their workflow. Now photographers can create multiple versions of an image without duplicating files or using up large amounts of hard drive space. Linear color space; LightZone manipulates color images in a linear color space, allowing more precise calculations for consistent color and predictable results on a display or on paper.

LightZone Pricing and Availability
LightZone for Macintosh is available immediately at the lightcrafts website for $249.95 (USA Suggested List Price). LightZone for Windows will be available in November. Customers also have the option of downloading a free 30-day trial version. LightZone for Macintosh supports Mac OS X v.10.3.9 or later. LightZone for Windows supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

About Light Crafts
Light Crafts, based in Palo Alto, develops digital photo processing software for professional and prosumer photographers. For more information, visit the lightscraft website. Light Crafts, LightZone, StudioZone, ZoneFinder, ZoneMapper and RegionMapper are trademarks of Light Crafts, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.